AKIRA WATANABE: 1978 WORLD MX CHAMPION

In the history of the World Motocross Championship, riders representing upwards of 15 individual nations have claimed world titles. However, interestingly, amazingly and almost unbelievably, only one Japanese rider has won only one World Championship. His name is Akira Watanabe and in 1978 he won the 125cc World Motocross Championship. During the 39 years which have followed, no rider representing the nation of 127 million inhabitants has been able to win a World Championship.

Akira Watanabe was born in 1954 in Utsunomiya, Japan and first became intrigued by motocross by seeing 50cc race bike inside the store front window of a motorcycle dealership. He took to the bike quickly, and within two years was racing. Excelling in local and regional races around the nation, by the age of 17, Akira had caught the eye of the Suzuki Motor Corporation and was hired to test, research and develop the brand’s motocross bikes. In 1974, at age 19 and already a professional, he won the Japanese Championship in both the 125cc and 250cc classes. One year later, he fulfilled his boyhood dream of being sent to Europe to contest the 125cc World Championship Series. “Of course I remember Akira,” exclaims Roger DeCoster. “He was based in Belgium, actually, when he raced in Europe. That was during the Gaston Rahier days. He actually spent some time living with Gaston on the East Side of Belgium. He also rode with me. Akira raced the Trans-AMA Series, as well. He was a good rider – a very good rider. I mean you don’t win a World Championship without being a decent rider. Akira was very focused and he really wanted it bad. He came to Europe, which was not so easy for a Japanese rider.

MARTY MOATES AT THE CARLSBAD RACEWAY

In the month of June, during the summer of 1980, Carlsbad Raceway and Marty Moates would become synonymous with one another. On that sunny afternoon Moates, the consummate underdog as an empty-pocketed privateer, rode his LOP Yamaha to victory at the 500cc USGP, a race that until then was dominated by visiting European stars. It was the one race every American rider dreamed of winning, though no one had pulled it off up to that point. But in Cinderella fashion, Moates, born and raised in nearby San Diego, pulled off what remains arguably the single biggest upset in motocross history.

TRAMPAS PARKER: THE FIRST YANKEE WORLD CHAMPION

American-born, Trampas Parker created motocross history as the very first Yankee to win two World Motocross Championships. What made Parker’s rise to world-class racer so astonishing was that he was virtually unknown back in the United States (Remember, there was no Instagram or Facebook back then!). Based in Italy when his career took off, Parker lit up the global motocross scene by clinching the 1989 125cc championship for KTM. Two years later, the Texas-raised rider proved his skill and speed was no fluke as he won the 250cc championship on a Honda